User-controlled Housing: Desirability and Feasibility

User-controlled housing is defined as a process in which the residents—not only professionals and developers—make significant decisions regarding the design and the construction or renovation of their homes. This paper argues that it is relevant to and should be commonly used in formal systems of housing in the developed countries. It draws support for its arguments from empirical evidence, primarily from Israel and the Netherlands. Much of the evidence is related to housing upgrading by moderate-income and middle-income households, which was found to be highly desirable from individual and public points of view. The paper recommends to decision-makers and planners to facilitate user-controlled housing and to make it an ordinary part of developing new neighbourhoods and renovating old ones.     

Socio‐spatial mix and inter‐ethnic attitudes: Jewish newcomers and Arab‐Jewish issues in the Galilee

Urban and regional planners tend to recommend spatial mix of socially diverse populations as an appropriate strategy to achieve social equity and improve inter‐group relations. However, the actual impact of such a mix on social relations in general, and inter‐ethnic attitudes in particular, has been subject to on‐going, yet inconclusive, debates among social scientists. This paper adds to the study of these issues by examining the inter‐ethnic attitudes of residents in Jewish ‘new settlements’ (elsewhere termed ‘community settlements’, or ‘mitzpim'), which were established some 15 years ago among the Arab villages of Israel's central Galilee region. We found that despite certain strands of ethnocentrism, most Jewish settlers hold significantly more moderate views on Arab‐Jewish issues than: (a) the general (non‐Galilee) Jewish public in Israel; and (b) the region's Arab population. The influence of the socio‐spatial mix on the moderation of hostile attitudes, at least among the Jews, is analyzed and explained by comparing our data with the findings of previous research on the topic. On the basis of that comparison we conclude that the Arab — Jewish mix in the Galilee, along with socio‐economic characteristics of the Jewish population and the existence of a ‘penetrating group phenomenon’, have combined to moderate Jewish attitudes in the study region. Planners are called upon to use this knowledge.